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The Japanese invasion of Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945 resulted in a significant wartime atrocity known as the Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing. The invasion and occupation of Nanjing in December 1937 occurred as the Japanese army was consolidating and extending gains in North China, and it immediately followed the Battle of Shanghai—a bitter contest between Chinese and Japanese forces that resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. On December 1, Japan’s cabinet ordered the occupation of Nanjing, then China’s capital. Japanese forces took the city on December 13, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 295,525 people, according to a Nanjing District Court investigation conducted in 1946. Those killed included large numbers of civilians as well as captured Chinese soldiers. ...